Voting for Santromgrich . . .

. . . (or whatever that one guy’s name is) is nothing more than a continuation of the policies that led to the conservative revolt that brought us this close to effectively ending the Obama administration by capturing both houses of Congress. Yet, inexplicably enough, a good number of people in Iowa thought that was a good idea. Of course, as Rick Perry said, there are some good, solid conservatives in the Hawkeye state — but let’s be honest here: Iowans know on which side their bread is buttered (.pdf notice) and are known to cast their votes accordingly.

And lest one think that Rick Santromgrich is in any way a threat to the Bread and Butter Cartel that rules D.C., allow Erick Erickson’s compendium of his fiscal heresies disabuse you of any such silly notions.

Rick Santorum is a pro-life statist. He is. You will have to deal with it. He is a big government conservative. Santorum is right on social issues, but has never let his love of social issues stand in the way of the creeping expansion of the welfare state. In fact, he has been complicit in the expansion of the welfare state.

I and some friends, none of us Romney fans, have set about exploring Santorum’s record since Wednesday morning. Here now is a non-exhaustive list of what we have found. It does not even include his support for No Child Left Behind, Medicare Part D, etc.

This is not the record of a man committed to scaling back the welfare state or the nanny state.

Be sure to go here and read the whole thing — which will likely require you to bookmark the page given the sheer volume of big-government conservatism he’s unearthed.

And if that’s not enough to convince you that Santromgrich doesn’t have any particular interest in upsetting the status quo that brought America to its current state, why not have a look at one of the world’s leading authorities on big-government conservatism, the Washington Post‘s own Michael Gerson. Ramesh Ponnuru kindly provides some very direct and specific evidence of Rick Santromgrich’s big-government proclivities over at The Corner on NRO, citing a letter in which he forcefully advocates its enduring legacy.

Of course, it behooves the reader to bear in mind that these things aren’t necessarily intended as paeans to Santromgrich himself. Rather, one suspects the intent is to undermine his ability to reach out to and consolidate enough support among advocates of limited government to pose a legitimate threat to their chosen guy, Mitt Romsangrich. The last thing these people want is the voters of South Carolina, or anywhere else for that matter, to remember what this election is all about and discover a candidate who actually embodies those principles.

We here at DDR Global HQ and our readers all know who that candidate is. And that candidate recently posted a blog entry over at RedState demonstrating one aspect of what he intends to do when he’s elected to the White House. And, make no mistake about it, his plans do not sit well with the GOP establishment, nor its embeds in the conservative press.

Earlier this week, the Chicago Tribune ran a little noted editorial on the insider trading scandal plaguing Congress, calling out phony efforts to reform the rules and demanding that we finally put a stop to this outrageous and unethical behavior.

If you haven’t read the editorial yet, I recommend you do because while the professional political punditry class is more interested in superfluous items like the political horse race and candidate attire, the reality is that members of both parties in Washington, D.C., are abusing their positions and ordinary Americans have had enough.

Given Governor Perry’s unabashed willingness to call out the iniquities on both sides of the aisle and draw attention to the daily fleecing of the American taxpayer while our representatives trade on their power and insider information, it’s little wonder he’s encountering so much resistance. People whose livelihoods depend on access to those who currently control the proverbial levers of power have little interest in upsetting the system as it’s currently set up. With “safe” candidates like Newt Gingromrum, there’s little chance that the “natural order of things” will be altered in any meaningful way.

And that brings us to this beautifully executed send-up of all the folks running interference for the powers that be brought to us by Dan Riehl. (Salty Language Advisory):

32 Responses to Voting for Santromgrich . . .

Walt, I am beginning to wonder what Erick Erickson’s motive are. Yeah, Rick submitted a scathing article about the actions of Congress critters that put Martha Steward in jail while they escape the very laws they wrote. But this morning, Erickson, in his second demand article, is calling for Rick’s campaign staff to be fired and replaced, pronto. Erickson is so over the top with his “insider” and “anonymous” sources about Rick’s campaign staff, Dan Riehl, solidly in Rick’s corner commented that with friends like this (Erickson) Perry doesn’t need enemies.

Maybe it is time for someone who is still welcome at RS (don’t expect RS moderators to act like anything but the petulant children they are) to ask Erickson that now famous question of Rick’s that has gone viral: “You gotta name?” Maybe someone should also ask Erickson how Rick managed to win all those elections in the past without Erickson’s expertise in campaign manangement. Oh, wait, Erickson has never managed a campaign, he just now thinks he’s ten feet tall and covered in fur because Rick doesn’t think Erickson will stab him in the back.

We all need to contact Rick’s campaign headquarters and warn them that there are enemies at the gate and they are acting friendly.

I tend to think Erickson’s motives can be attributed to saving face. He took a lot of heat from some bloggers for Perry’s announcement in South Carolina on the day of the (oh-so-consequential) Iowa straw poll, and has been catching hell from them ever since. Now, anything he says about Santorum, Newt, or Romney that isn’t absolutely glowing is attributed to the notion that he’s bought and paid-for by the Perry campaign.

He may or may not be sincere, but I can’t help suspecting that there’s at least some CYA at play, and he wants to be in the position of saying, “Well, hey — now we’re stuck with Romney despite my best efforts to get the Perry campaign to straighten up its act.” That way, if Romney does get the nod and people start razzing him being in Perry’s pocket, he’ll write a post with a passage that says, “see here, here, here, here and here” replete with links to his complaints about the Perry campaign staff.

Stacy McCain did much the same on a regular basis when the Cain Train was in the process of derailing. Me? I don’t particularly care about saving face. I’m not big or furry enough.

Thanks for the laugh, Walt. Damn, I’d like to have a beer with you, and I don’t even drink.

Yeah, I think Erickson is playing both ends against the middle, and that does’t instill any respect from me. Stand his damn ground like a man, and if he loses, take it like a man. That tactic just makes him look like another opportunist who wants it both ways and is in it for the readership, not the good of the country. I appreciate you are honest and will not be a sell-out.

Thanks, retire05. Maybe one of these days we can blow the head off a couple of root beers.

I have to say, I wasn’t heartened to see what was put forward as a “new” campaign ad in SC today — an ad that’s essentially been out for a couple of months now. I’m just not sure what to make of it, other than the fact that the campaign team is undergoing some serious restructuring as Perry preps for the NH debates.

In any event, as long as the governor is in the race, I’m supporting him come hell or high water. That’s just how it is.

I can’t agree with you more, retireo5! EE was supposed to be Perry’s friend & supposedly played a part in getting Perry to announce in SC instead of Iowa. I have read that ppl in Iowa were mad about that, and did NOT forget on caucus day. hmmmm

Riehl, though, lied in a blog about Perry. Saying he went back to Texas instead of SC, when that was not the truth. When I called him on it, he said I was “nitpicking” and “get over it”… hmmmm

What walt wrote here also applies to bloggers/website owners/twitterers, etc There is a cabal of conservative media who tweet, and I follow most of them (I had to unfollow Michelle Malkin b/c she is SO hateful)…and they are just as eager to be the ones to put Santormitgingrich as the candidate as the MSM are. They all hate Perry too, and when I give them links to answer their wrong “facts” or impression they get snarky to ME! That doesn’t help the conservative cause THEY purport to espouse in my book.

Walt…keep up the great work, and retire05 keep watching/reading and posting. We need all the eyes and ears we can get in order to hopefully get Gov. Perry at least a little of a fair shot..

I’m being peppered with email and FB solicitations from the Perry campaign. I am fully behind Perry, but someone should tell the Perry campaign that they need to start arming us (his supporters) with evidence that his campaign is till active and viable so we can counter the doom and gloom (much of it falsely fueled by Romney supporters) about his campaign.

I’ll open my wallet a third time, but I want to see what my money is funding. The campaign needs to start advertising what his events and appearances are on their website. They started the campaign doing that, but stopped early on. Very irritating.

Oh, and I completely agree about Erickson’s posts about the inner workings of the campaign. They are not helpful.

In regards to redstate.com, the folks that run that site are high on their own egos. That is what it is all about, so I think Dan Riehl’s assessment of that is correct. I mean, good grief, I was banned there for nothing, and I am hardly alone in that regard.

I also used to follow Michelle Malkin’s blog, but I quit that some time ago, as she has become nothing but bitter and spiteful these days.

Man do I hope Perry is able to get his numbers back up in SC, or this is going to be a long year, 4 years, 8 years, whatever.

Llorta, as you know, I too, was banned from RS. Seems some have gigantic egos over there.

As to Michelle Malkin: I stopped reading her when she reprinted a hate-filled diatribe written by Pam Geller who accused Rick Perry of being pro-Sha’ria. A great blogger, CounterContempt, took Geller on and proved that Geller’s article was filled with not only twisted facts, but lies as well. When he did, he was attacked by not only Geller, but Robert Spencer, as well. AOSHQ took Geller on, and Ace was verbally attacked by Geller on her site. Of course, Malkin never apologized for taking Geller at her word, even when Danial Pipes, the foremost expert on Islam said Geller was wrong. Malkin never acknowledged Pipes’ comments or even the Center for Policy Security, Frank Gaffney’s organization (who literally wrote the book on Sha’ria in the U.S.) when they said Geller was dead wrong. But Geller was pimping for a Sarah Palin run and had an ulterior motive in her hit piece on Perry.

Walt’s blog is one of the ones I check every morning. But my choices in bloggers, and talk show hosts, is rapidly dwindling as they start pimping for candidates that I know are the wrong choice for this nation at this time. And then, there are those bloggers who soldier on even when any kind word they have for Rick Perry gets them attack in the most vicious way by people they allow to post on their own blog.

Llorta, there was a thread about the 10th Amendment. I posted a remark, simply stating that of all the candidates, Rick Perry has the strongest stand on the 10th. Someone by the name of Bill S. told me to quit spamming the thread and learn the ROE. I told him that if the thread was about the 10th, how could you ignore Rick’s stand on that. He came back and basically told me if I wanted to talk about Rick Perry, do so in a diary or get my own blog or he would ban me, and had the power to do it. I told Bill S. that he needed to learn a little civility, and that if he checked other threads, he would see other members praising me for my rational posts. BAM! I was gone.

I had no clue who this Bill S. character was or how he had the authority to ban anyone. But it seems that EE has moderators who are allowed to pick and choose what is posted, who is allowed to keep their entry standing and the power to ban. As I go to Perry friendly blogs, I am finding more and more people who have been banned from RS. Seems to be creating a pattern.

Little Green Footballs did the same thing a while back. Now his blog is in the toilet and Charles is reduced to begging for money in his tip jar to keep going. RS should understand that alienating readers is NOT the way to keep a blog going, and yesterday’s news is today’s bird cage liner.

At this point, for Perry to come back, Santorum and/or Newt will have to implode or be taken down. I am certain these things will happen, but the question is, will they implode soon enough to help Perry? The odds aren’t good, but there is still a chance Perry could turn things around. After all, just look at how many candidates in this cycle have risen and fallen in a matter of days and weeks.

I agree the odds don’t look good at the moment. But, I keep reminding myself that Santorum went from a non-factor to the winner in IA in less than two weeks. I can only hope that Katon Dawson has big things going behind the scenes in SC, and has cultivated a huge potential surge in support at just the right moment.

Every primary campaign has shockers, and I’m absolutely convinced Santorum’s finish in IA won’t be the last one. So, until Rick Perry is officially and irretrievably out of the race, I’m 100% behind him and waiting for guidance.

Laura, Rick did return to Texas. Yesterday morning he had his run at Town Lake in Austin (it’s where he likes to run by himself with no one but a few Texas Rangers making sure he is safe. No worry, Rick packs everywhere he goes when in Texas). So I don’t understand why you think Rick went straight to SC.

Rick has one thing in common with both George W. and LBJ. All three of those men found that coming home helped clear their minds and allow them to make decisions that needed to be done by them. LBJ rode around his Fredricksburg ranch in an open Cadillac convertible, driving as fast as he could; G.W. cut brush and trees and worked on his Prairie Chapel ranch and Rick runs.

There is something about coming home where you are comfortable and happy that clears the head.

I am hoping that when Perry runs in SC he gets his message back to what Larry Kudlow refers to as ”the Texas miracle” vs. Obama’s national disaster. He needs to point out to the SC (as well as national) voters that under his watch Texas created more jobs than the entire rest of the nation did under Obama’s watch. That’s impressive! Also how can Romney’s Governorship of Massachusetts, which was #47th in the nation for job creation, compare to that? Perry needs to advertise these facts. Meanwhile the unemployment rate in SC is one of the highest in the nation. He also needs to get back on his ”Drill baby drill” message to appeal to the rest of the country. In some ways I have to agree with Erik that Perry’s team could have done a lot better on his ”message” in Iowa. Think he got too bogged down into going with an almost exclusive social conservative candidate and forgot his ”Texas miracle” accomplishments which he could go national with should he be elected. Just my opinion.

PS. I can understand why Perry didn’t talk about his energy plan in Iowa because of the ethanol issue there. But I also have to respect that unlike Romney, Santorum and Gingrich he didn’t pander to the Iowans by endorsing ethanol subsidies. While in Iowa Perry also stopped talking about his fantastic tax plan which he worked on with financial wizard, Steve Forbes. It go all sorts of endorsements when he came out with it from other financial experts and big time publications. Indeed, even Rush praised it when it came out. He needs to talk about how many doctors and medical institutions flooded into Texas when he got tort reform through, etc. etc. etc. Hope whomever his staff is in SC that they will get him back on these messages.

PSS….. Romney has been in SC telling the people about all the jobs he supposedly created in the private sector. Perry needs to remind SC that when Romney was a Governor his jobs creation was 47th in the nation. He needs to remind the people in SC that he, as a Governor, created more jobs than the whole rest of the country! How can Romney’s alleged ”jobs message” go anywhere if the Perry campaign points this out?

ladyczarina, have you seen the new MoveOn.org ad against Mitt Romney? Darn, that’s gonna leave a mark. I understand it is going to run in all high unemployment states.

Just wait until South Carolinians learn that Santorum voted against the federal right-to-work bill. Texas, and all other RTW states are the ones creating jobs while Obama does his damn level best to kill them.

But there may be more to Iowa than first meets the eye. Seems Santorum and Romne had a bit of help:

Of course, the ethanol industry has said that the loss of the ethanol subsidies will not affect them that much. They must think we are stupid. If it is not that important, why the flier? Ah, poor Iowa piggie named “Ethanol Subsidy” died on 12/31/11 at midnight. Brazil cheers.

Yeah, I saw that ad, too. It was devastating. Obama has clearly set the stage to run against Romney. Boy I hope the Republicans get their heads screwed on straight and start voting for Perry. Perry would be a much better contrast to Obama than Romney, that is for sure.

I got a HUGE issue with that.
Its one thing for supporters to be disheartend and toss in the towel. We have all been let down so many times by people we thought were “the guy” to save us.
I.g., Sarah Palin

But when your own staff accepts it with a defeatest attitude and does not take Perry aside as I would have done (And Walt should know I never doubted Perry) and gave him a pep talk and helped him back on his feet and face the fact that he is the ONLY conservative left in the race?

If they are not BELIEVERS in rick, what are they doing in his campaign?

Then comes some scuttle I hear from locals in states such as alabama and now florida that whoever is setting up the local campaigns for those states really have their heads up their butts and have apparently never heard the word “Barn Storming”

There is no organization in these local places, is the complaint, and these staffers who speak for Rick are in large part people who are appointed to parrot what Rick says… but really have no idea where Rick comes from and what he believes and share his vision.
Unmotivated opportunists someone called a group of these people in alabama.

I dont know what the answer is im not trying to pretend to, but I do see some problems Rick has that could be smoothed out by either knocking sense into the staff he has, or shipping some of them out.

I read your comments and need to correct one thing. [Ed] Rollins doesn’t work for Perry. He is Bachmann’s former campaign manager who bailed on her. I think you were referring to Ray Sullivan.

Lot’s of ‘anonymous’ sources on Rick’s campaign. I find that odd. Sullivan, and Carney, have managed Rick’s campaigns before and have always played it very close to the vest.

Anyone who claims that they took Rick’s speech in Iowa to be his swan song, doesn’t know Rick. I suspect there is a lot of (anonymous) CYA going on. Some people are professional campaigners, and if Rick goes down in flames, they want to be able to claim it was not their fault.

Wish there was a way to edit a post after you send it, I always remember one more thing after i hit send.

I have been seeing too much scuttlebutt saying his campaign heads were caught off guard and some of them were apparently telling perry “its time to back out” when Perry came in 5th.

The ones who took Perry at his word and did not argue with him when he said “We need to reasess” you can argue if they are worth keeping.
The ones who told him to pack it in? They need to be sent home.
I’d replace them all with Capt Dan Moran. No way does “I quit” come into mind when you take a look at Capt Dan.

I may be able to help with some of the explanation of why EE may be doing what he is doing, maybe. I don’t know if any of you guys were aware of the whole RS gathering fiasco from earlier this year, which had nothing to do with the Perry announcement there.

Right around Christmas in “2010″ a woman, Jamie Radtke, announced her candidacy to run for Jim Webb’s VA senate seat. He had already said he wasn’t running for re-election. Her only experience was in running a Tea Party group in Richmond, which had Ron Paul there as a speaker, so it drew big crowds. She contacted EE, and low and behold, around Jan. of last year, he posted an article endorsing her. He knew absolutely nothing about her, but his hate for George Allen apparently runs that deep. She has never gotten above 6 in polling for that race, and as of the last fundraising reports, she is already a quarter of a million in the hole, and there is still almost a year to go to the election. She is going nowhere fast. Her only campaign messages everywhere have been to attack Allen. She rarely talks about her issues, plans, goals etc. except for some very canned messages like making the government smaller. Her 4 supporters are all Ron Paul supporters.

She just showed up at the RS gathering, and asked if she could be fit into a very packed schedule, in order to make a speech. She was asked not to make a campaign speech, but she made a campaign speech. Some attendees said she was so boring, unprepared, and just went on and on until she put everyone to sleep. Some said that the way she was rambling and repeating herself over and over, it appeared that she was drunk. Within days of the gathering end, she had contacted I think Politico, and gave them the story that she had contacted EE before the event to request time on the schedule, but EE emailed back that he needed to walk very carefully as his bosses at Regenery were all big Allen supporters. She gave Politico a copy of the email. Big big sour grapes.

A day later EE puts up an article that Radtke did such a horrible job with her speech that he was getting tons of emails telling him that she was obviously drunk, and was a complete embarrassment to RS for having her speak at all. Some that were there were commenting that they witnessed her disaster. It started a huge battle between her, EE, Robert Stacy McCain started posting in defense of Radtke based on her word. The story went around the web like wildfire, and quite honestly, it was the most attention Radtke had ever gotten as a candidate.

From that instance, I don’t know if EE was told not to endorse, or if he decided not to endorse because of that disaster. It hasn’t stopped him from slamming some of the candidates though. There were a few times that EE would write something positive about a candidate, and by that afternoon he wrote another piece slamming them. It seems to be the same case with his comments on CNN. He is for someone, then against them, and then is for them again. I often wonder if he doesn’t take his ques from some of the posters at RS. There are many posters at RS that are for all the different candidates. There is no unity at all. There are a few that live to slam Perry and his supporters there, in every conceivable way. They write some of the most insulting, egregious, and nasty things about the Perry supporters, and some of the most untruthful things about Perry, just to see if it sticks to the wall. But they are free to spread the rumors without fear of banning.

Oh well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. LOL

Coming here is like being in Heaven. I am with the most intelligent, like minded people, who know in their hearts who the best candidate for the presidency is. I must say I admire and appreciate the loyalty of those that aren’t serial daters, going from candidate to candidate, depending on the polls, or the latest MSM or Fox smear. I will be attending the inauguration of President Rick Perry in Jan. 2013. It is an easy drive or train ride for me to Washington.

Scope, I was aware of the Radke kerfuffle. I remember there being some small blog war over the RS Gathering/Radke situation. Perhaps I did not attribute the effect to EE that I should have.

As to Stacy McCain; for weeks he followed Herman Cain around like a love sick puppy, even going to Cain’s book signing and then, the next morning, printing glorious praise pieces about how Cain was de man. If someone questioned Cain’s cred, their post was promply deleted.

Some of these bloggers think that creating a blog war brings them readership. Charles Johnson, of LGF, has done that more than once, but it backfired on him. Pam Geller, who put out a false report on Rick Perry and claimed Perry was pro-Sha’ria law, had her article taken apart piece by piece, so she attacked CounterContempt, as well as Ace, when they both called b/s on her article. Debbie Schlussel reprinted Geller’s AT article (which also appeared on Geller’s own site) and when I pointed out the errors of Geller’s article, Schlussel sent me such hate filled, and violent, emails that I turned them over to my lawyer who in turn turned them over to a FBI friend. Schlussel was ordered, by me, to cease and dissist, as she continued to send me the hateful emails for a couple of days, everytime I told her to stop sending them.

So over Geller’s article, we wound up with a war with Geller, Schlussel and Robert Spencer on one side, all attacking CounterContempt, Ace and any other blogger who called b/s on Geller’s article. All promoted for no other reason than the first three were looking for hits to their websites.

It appears that this a part of the Glen Beck promoted 9.12 project. Beck, and his sidekicks slammed Perry into the ground a few months ago, over the in-state tuition bill, which was the day I turned the radio off, and I refuse to give any of them ratings. The only one on this guide to get near perfect ratings is Ron Paul. I believe they are now firmly on the Santorum bandwagon, including in SC. This voter guide was emailed to all of their members a few days before the Iowa caucus.

Get a load of what they are saying about Perry. They claim that he is for gay marriage, and that he is for amnesty. They say he supports halal laws, or some such thing.

The site was changed since I checked it out yesterday. There was a paragraph which included the email address for Ken, saying that if there were any corrections needed to please email him. That has disappeared, but I wrote it down- Ken@SouthernNH9.12.com. I emailed the Perry campaign with the link, but I don’t know if they have gotten in touch with Ken to correct their false info.

Ha, I just saw a tweet that Amy Kreamer, of Tea Party Express is supposed to endorse a candidate tonight. I was under the impression that those groups were not allowed to endorse, or promote any particular candidate because of their tax status, and the FEC rules.

You may want to contact Ken and give him the correct info about Perry. It’s curious that his email address disappeared since yesterday.

I’m a poster at Red State and my impression is that Erik has always wanted Rick Perry to be the candidate. Sometimes he has expressed disappointment and gave what came across to me not as tearing Rick down as much as trying to give what he, Erik, thinks is constructive advice. As fare as his latest diary about the Perry campaign staff, I’m not in a position to be able to evaluate whether I agree or disagree with Erik on this. I do know, as I have posted above last evening, that I thought that Rick devoted almost all of his time in Iowa being ”Mr. Super social conservative” while his messages which he came out with originally on his fiscal ideas which he has proven to be able to implement as the Chief Executive in Texas which brought forth the ”Texas miracle”. Neither Obama NOR Romney can come close to what Perry has achieved in the PUBLIC SECTOR! I hope he gets back to this in South Carolina.

It also really disappointed me that the evangelicals in Iowa were being told by their preachers network to rally around Santorum instead of Perry. I’ve been wondering if that is what caused the little pow-wow of Christian leaders that have gotten together recently in Texas. I am hoping that some of the nationally known Christian leaders will come out and endorse Perry in South Carolina. That would help him immensely there.

I meant to include in my above post that, from what I heard, the evangelical preachers in Iowa networked for Santorum the last week of the campaign when they decided that their flocks should rally behind a single candidate and decided that Santorum was the one because he was ahead. If they had done this for Perry he would have done a lot better in Iowa, in fact, would have beaten Gingrich and maybe even Santorum.